Movie Review: John Wick Chapter 3 Parabellum.

John Wick debuted in 2014 and proved that a simple story, executed well, can create an exceptional movie. In that chapter, we met John Wick, retired hit man, shortly after the death of his wife due to an extended illness. Knowing he would be alone, she arranged to have a beautiful puppy delivered to him after her funeral.  John randomly encountered some thugs who stole his car and killed his puppy – he spends the rest of the movie hunting them down and killing them.   Directed by Chad Stahelski, who has been Keanu’s stunt double since 1999’s The Matrix, the movie was fast and fresh, and who doesn’t want to see puppy murderers get what’s coming to them?  By the end of that movie, he had found a new dog, and killed enough people that the High Table started to wonder if he was un-retired.

The second chapter in 2017 delved more into John’s hitman world, and the Continental, the hotel where they can seek refuge, but where they cannot conduct business.  After a movie’s worth of folks trying to get John back into business, John breaks the rules and kills a guy on Continental grounds.  That movie ends with John getting excommunicated, and a bounty getting taken out on his head with notice going to all the bounty hunters and assassins everywhere.

Chapter 3 picks up immediately thereafter. John has one hour to prep before his excommunicated status goes active and everyone begins coming after him. He gets his wounds tended as best he can as the time runs out.  He then spends the rest of the movie attempting to find allies and backup while going to meet ‘the elder’ who operates above ‘the table’.  The High Table is the organizing body of the association of hitmen, or at least, that’s what it seems.  The Elder agrees to waive John’s sentence, if he comes back into service, and does a job for him.  Things go awry from there, but we’ve already been guaranteed chapter 4.  Eventually, hopefully, he will get back to his quiet life of retirement with his new dog.

This chapter is also directed by Chad Stahelski, and again features action sequences second to none. The hand to hand combat sequences are exceptional, and John does get to battle hordes of ninjas here. The gunplay is a bit excessive for me, but Keanu does it very well.  Halle Berry’s character has two dogs she has trained to essentially function as extensions of her weapons and they are amazing, I have never seen anything quite like that before.  The dogs and their interaction with her is one of the most exciting things in this movie.  Neither of them get hurt – also, John’s dog is fine.

• Keanu Reeves is perfect as John Wick. He’s a man of few words, definitive actions, and a desire to get back to his retirement.  But he also is not going to let anybody get away with pushing him around.

• Halle Berry plays Sofia, a woman who is running the Continental in Morocco and is less than thrilled to see John.  She does what she can to help, and gets just a couple of scenes, but what incredible actions sequences they are.

• Ian McShane plays Winston, the manager of the Continental in New York. He’s either John’s closest friend or greatest enemy, and that seems to change from scene to scene, which makes him one of the most interesting characters in the movie.

• Lance Reddick plays Charon, the concierge of the New York Continental. He’s happy to dog-sit for John, and also not afraid to get his hands dirty when things get questionable.

• Laurence Fishburne plays the Bowery King who has a network of ‘homeless’ undercover assassins and information gatherers. He helps John, but ends up pissing off the Table with that action, which in turn, pisses him off.

• Mark Dacascos plays Zero, and I have been a fan of his for so long, since Only the Strong in 1993.  It’s so wonderful to see him in this, and he really seems to be having the best time of anyone in the movie. He is obviously enjoying every scene as he chases down and admires John Wick.

• Asia Kate Dillon plays the Ajudicator, who shows up to bring the Table’s ruling to various characters who have interacted with John, helping him along his way.  Dillon is cold as ice, and perfect in the role.

• Anjelica Huston plays the Director of some sort of Russian organization while also cruelly coaching ballerinas and wrestlers – she has a lot going on.  John goes to her for help, to call in a favor from long ago.

• Said Taghmaoui plays the Elder, despite being younger than almost everyone else in the movie. He’s just wandering the Moroccan desert waiting for folks to try to come find him so that he can remind everyone he’s above the Table.

• Jerome Flynn, most recently seen as Bronn in Game of Thrones plays Berrada, someone only Halle Berry can get John an audience with, and he’s less than helpful. Although he provides some random history on the word ‘assassin’.

• Jason Mantzoukas plays the Tick Tock man, one of The Bowery King’s assets who seems to be there just to remind John Wick he’s running out of time. It’s a thrill to see Mantzoukas there, especially if, like me, you’re a fan of the How Did This Get Made podcast. If you aren’t, you should be, it’s fantastic.

• Also – there’s a random non-penguin Robin Lord Taylor appearance!

Overall, if you liked the others, you will love this. There are so many action sequences that are crafted to include bits I have never seen before – which is tough these days. The action is incredible, the story is fine, but in reality, it is second tier to the action. This movie is the perfect example of how a simple story executed perfectly can be far superior to a complicated story executed poorly.  I am looking forward to seeing what John gets up to in Chapter 4, and if he can ever get back to his retirement.

8 out of 10 – same score as the other two chapters, exceptional action and really entertaining.

Movie Review: The Hustle (PG13 – 93 minutes)

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was made in 1988 and was actually a remake of the 1964 movie, Bedtime Story. It starred Michael Caine and Steve Martin and was directed by Frank Oz.  In it, Michael Caine played a very posh con man living in the seaside town of Beaumont-sur-Mer, making an incredible living conning mostly women, heiresses, with the help of a few assistants.  His pleasant world is rocked by the arrival of a crass American sub-par con man played by Steve Martin.  Caine agrees to help train Martin in return for his assistance. They have a falling out, and compete for the territory by attempting to get the fortune of a wealthy woman.

This new version, produced by Rebel Wilson and starring Anne Hathaway and Wilson is almost exactly the same story.  Wilson plays Penny, a crass con-woman who runs into Hathaway’s Josephine Chesterfield, a very posh and polished con-woman.  Josephine trains Penny, but after a falling out, they compete to steal the fortune from an American tech giant in town for a conference.

The movie had potential and really should have been so much funnier than it is.  Wilson is game, and goes full-out for the comedy. Hathaway seems an odd choice for this movie, and really I can’t help but wonder if the movie would have been better with someone more comedy-capable in the role.  The movie is directed by Chris Addison, who has previously directed mostly TV shows, and this movie is well put together, just not as funny as I wanted it to be.

• Anne Hathaway plays Josephine Chesterfield with a questionable British accent that may have been a choice since we do not really know if the character is British, or if that’s a con as well. She seems disinterested and aloof, but again – perhaps those are character choices and she’s doing a great job?

• Rebel Wilson plays Penny Rust, and it’s very similar to other characters she has played. It’s interesting to see her progress through the training with Josephine, but I would have liked to see that result in more of a character shift.

• Alex Sharp plays Thomas Westerburg, the tech genius whose fortune they are after. He’s one-note until the end, which is not a surprise if you’ve seen the original.
• Ingrid Oliver plays Brigitte Desjardins, a police officer helping Josephine.
• Dean Norris has a very brief role as a mark for the two women.

Overall the movie is fine, and there’s a chuckle here and there, but I really wanted laughs from this movie and it did not deliver that level of hijinks. Of course, I remember having the same feeling from the original. It made me feel uncomfortable more than it made me laugh, and this one is right along those lines.  I would have liked to see the women targeting some terrible men so that you could get on board with them taking their fortunes.  That felt like another missed opportunity.  Honestly, I didn’t like either of the characters, and that would have been a way to get the audience on their side. The potential was there, and it’s a perfectly serviceable comedy, but it could have been much funnier.

6 out of 10 – it’s fine, but it’s not great.

Movie Review: Avengers Endgame (PG13 – 181 minutes)

It has happened – we reached the twenty-second movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe!  At this point in the MCU, we are still reeling from the end of last year’s Infinity War where Thanos (the Mad Titan) collected all six of the infinity stones (space, power, time, soul, mind, and reality), inserted them into his Infinity Gauntlet, and snapped his fingers to eliminate half the living beings in the universe.  It’s his way of solving overpopulation and a lack of resources.  I guess he didn’t think about just snapping more resources into existence while he was working on this plan for his entire life.  That movie ended with the shocking disintegration of most of our heroes, and this movie picks up with the remaining heroes stunned and confused. 

Slight spoilers from here down – it’s tough to say anything else about this movie without discussing at least a little bit of plot!

The post credits scene from Captain Marvel was Danvers showing up on earth as War Machine, Banner (not Hulk), Black Widow, and Captain America had found and were using Fury’s Marvel pager.  She demands to know where Fury is, and we can assume they ask her to go get Tony.  This movie begins with a quick flashback to Hawkeye on his farm as his entire family gets dusted (Thanos’s ‘half’ can unfairly affect some folks disproportionately).  We jump to Tony and Nebula in the remains of the Milano in space, killing time while their air runs out.  Danvers rescues them, and brings them back to earth, after 21 days up there.  Tony is frustrated, guilty, and takes it all out on Cap as anger.  Rocket has noticed a power surge on a distant planet similar to the one that caused the dusting, so they head out after Thanos to get the stones and undo the snap.  The issues is that when they get to him, he has just used the stones to destroy the stones, and there is nothing left: no plan, no options, and no hope.  This is literally only the first ten to fifteen minutes of a three hour movie. 

Major spoilers from here down –

From that point on, there’s a five year time jump, and the characters are attempting to move on.  Ant-Man gets pulled from the quantum realm, and from there, they plan a time heist.  I won’t say anything else - just that you really do need to see this.  Similarly to Infinity War, this movie rewards fans. If you have seen and loved the others in the MCU, you will love this.  If you go into this cold, there are parts you will enjoy, but you will mostly be confused and overwhelmed.  Each character gets some love, but the stars here are the original six Avengers. It’s a beautiful sign-off for them as they shift into semi-retirement, and let new heroes set up for the future.

Directed once again by the Russo Brothers (Joe and Anthony) and written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the movie is exceptional. It manages to honor all the movies that came before it – especially the Avengers team-ups.  Yes, it has a definite ending, and it is perfect and satisfying – in my opinion.  Yes, I cried multiple times, but I needed a handful of tissues, not the entire box.  Mostly I was cheering with absolute joy.  The cast seems to love and appreciate this opportunity, doing their best for the fans. Every Avenger is there (apparently there’s a Howard the Duck appearance, but I missed it), but again, the six originals really get to shine.

• Jeremy Renner as Clint “Hawkeye” Barton gets to do some emotional heavy lifting all the way through this. He starts with the dusting of his family, and then shifts into Ronin anger-killing, then has to go after the Soul Stone with a friend, and you know how that goes, because you know what it takes to get the Soul Stone.

• Scarlet Johansson plays Natasha “Black Widow” Romanoff.  She’s keeping it together, running what’s left of the Avengers in the post-snap world.  When an opportunity arises, she doesn’t hesitate to do what needs to be done.  Black Widow has never been one of my favorite characters, but Johansson shines here, and I am definitely looking forward to her rumored stand-alone origin movie.

• Mark Ruffalo plays Bruce Banner and the Hulk, and in this movie, they are closer than ever before.  Ruffalo is just so charming and fun, he really makes Banner relatable and genuine.  Thank goodness for his big brain when Scott comes back out of the quantum realm.

• Chris Hemsworth plays Thor, and while I thought he was at his lowest in the last movie, he somehow goes even lower here. After Thanos told him he should have gone for the head, he is undone by guilt and a level of trauma where he seems to be blaming himself for everything that went wrong. He gets some absolutely hilarious scenes, and some even more appreciated lovely scenes as he attempts to prove his own worth to himself.

• Chris Evans as Steve Rogers – Captain America – is once again the heart and soul of the team and the movie.  He is doing what he can post-snap, helping others attempt to move on, and checking in with his friends, trying to make sure everyone is okay.  His pep talk when they head out on mission is just so Cap, to the point that Scott and Rocket mention it.  There is a scene where he goes out alone to face Thanos, the Black Order, and their entire army without any hesitation.  It’s epically beautiful.  And yes, the scene I have wanted for a year is in this movie - *sniffle*.

• Robert Downey Jr., who at this point is indistinguishable from Tony Stark, is exceptional in this movie.  He starts off angry, then settled and resolved, and then hopeful and determined.  His performance is fantastic, and his support of the team is epic.  His interaction with Pepper is beautiful and lovely.  And yes, I thought this movie was a fitting ‘retirement’ for his character.

Everyone does an amazing job, and the giant action battle set piece at the end is everything you want it to be.  Yes, it’s moving and sad in parts, but it is also really hilarious and fun in parts.  There are plenty of moments that elicited loud cheering from my audience – definitely see it in a full theater if possible.  For a three hour movie, I didn’t feel the length, and I can’t really think of anything I would have removed. 

12 out of 10 – yes, I know that’s not how math works. I don’t care. I really loved it.  

There’s a moment where all the female heroes lined up to help Captain Marvel, and I ugly cried in the theater.  I never thought I would ever see an entire movie screen filled with female superheroes.  It’s a bit of an acknowledgement that they dropped the ball slightly on that front in the beginning, that they are taking steps to rectify it, and a promise that the future will be fantastic.

What a close to the first few phases of the MCU - I can’t wait for what’s next.

Movie Review: Shazam! (PG13 – 132 minutes)

The character now known as Shazam debuted in 1940 as Captain Marvel in Fawcett comics.  A boy named Billy Batson is given the powers of the ‘immortal elders’: Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury.  He can transform himself into an adult hero by yelling the acronym of their names – Shazam!  His most notable villains included Black Adam, Dr. Sivana, and Mister Mind.  The character was incredibly popular in the 1940s, and the franchise was expanded to include the ‘Marvel Family’, other heroes with similar powers.  In 1953, DC Comics launched a copyright lawsuit, claiming that Captain Marvel was a Superman rip-off.  Fawcett sold the rights to DC in 1972, and DC integrated and reintroduced Captain Marvel, who now mainly goes by Shazam, on account of the “Captain Marvel” name being owned by Marvel comics.

In this movie, years ago, we are introduced to a young Thaddeus Sivana who is driving with his horrible Lionel Luthor-like father and older brother when he is transported by a wizard to the Rock of Eternity.  The wizard is tasked with keeping the seven deadly sins at bay, but his siblings have passed on and he is growing weak.  He is seeking a champion who is pure of heart.  Sivana is not that, and is swiftly tempted by the sins demons.  The wizard boots him out, telling him he is not good enough, causing a car crash when he reappears back in the car. 

In present day, we are introduced to Billy Batson, who lost his mother as a toddler at a carnival.  He has bounced from foster family to foster family because he continues to run away in a search for his birth mother.  Eventually, he lands in Philadelpha, and is brought into a foster group home run by Victor and Rosa Vazquez.  Here, he meets his new foster siblings, Mary Bromfield, Pedro Pena, Eugene Choi, Darla Dudley and Freddy Freeman.  The kids seem to have that power ranger tendency to only wear one color each, which comes into play later.  Freddy has a vast knowledge of superheroes and their powers.  After saving Freddy from some bullies, Billy is transported to the Rock of Eternity and meets the wizard who now really needs help as the adult Sivana has come by and taken the sins demons to gain great power and do great harm.  Billy is granted the powers by the wizard, and transforms into the adult hero Shazam. He goes back to Freddy for advice and guidance.  While training, Billy gets better, not just as a hero, but as a person, eventually realizing that his foster family is his true family and strength as he battles with Sivana.

The movie is directed by David F. Sandberg, who directed Annabelle Creation and Lights Out.  It does feel a little long in the beginning, but once it gets going, the action is great, the lessons are well-earned, and the comedy is funny.  Sandberg has managed to finally make a DC movie that maintains a single tone throughout, and while it’s darker here and there than I expected, it is consistent all the way through. It takes the lighthearted tone that was experimented with in Wonder Woman and overdone in Aquaman to completely nail it here.  The story is great, and when Billy finally realizes he is with his true family, it was touching and genuine. Also, the final big fight was absolutely exuberant.

Slight Spoilers here in the cast – you definitely should see this one, so if you haven’t yet, skip the below.

• Zachary Levi plays Shazam and this is clearly the role he was born to play. He was great as Chuck, and fine in Thor, but here, he shines.  He does a fantastic job of portraying a kid suddenly given the opportunity of an adult hero’s body, and makes all the mistakes that would come with that change.  He also manages to portray the joy and confusion equally as believably.

• Mark Strong plays Dr. Sivana, and he seems to be having absolutely the best time. He’s very serious about using the seven deadly sins to first get revenge on his family, and second take over the world. Standard bad guy stuff.  Side Note – he would have made an exceptional Lex Luthor, but hey, I’m happy he’s in this.

• Asher Angel plays Billy Batson, and does a great job of portraying a kid who is struggling with the guilt of believing his birth mother thought he ran away.  His transition to acceptance of the foster family he is blessed with is subtle and lovely.

• Djimon Hounsou plays the Wizard Shazam, who is stuck in his cave, and slowly losing control over the sins demons.  He is searching for a champion, and finally finds Billy. 

• Jack Dylan Grazer plays Freddy Freeman, who is fast talking and crippled. He’s the perfect sidekick for Billy, keeping him entertained and pulling him out of his ongoing guilt.

• Here’s where the spoilers kick in – During the finale, Shazam realizes that the wizard told him he and his siblings ruled, and they were all gone. He passes his powers to his foster siblings, and they each get adult super hero versions too! Adam Brody plays the adult version of Freddy in flawless casting.
• Faithe Herman plays Darla, who is tiny, hilarious, and determined to be the best foster sister to Billy as possible.  Meagan Good plays Super Darla, who is super fast, but still young enough to now know what a ‘lair’ is. Grace Fulton plays Mary, who is worried about getting into a college on the west coast, and sad that it might mean leaving her foster family.  Michelle Borth plays Super Mary.  Ian Chen plays Eugene, who spends most of his time play video games. Ross Butler plays Super Eugene, and does a bit with his electrical powers. Jovan Armand plays Pedro, who is very quiet, but supportive of his siblings. D.J. Cotrona plays Super Pedro – this is significant because years ago, he was going to play Superman with Adam Brody as the Flash in a Justice League movie that never took off.

• Marta Milans and Cooper Andrews play the foster parents Rosa and Victor who now unwittingly are raising an entire troupe of superheroes.

Overall, the movie is charming, fun, and action packed. It is definitely too long at two hours and twelve minutes.  There are some excessive training bits that definitely could have been cut.  There are also some genuinely scary bits, but the kids in my screening loved it, so what do I know.  The design of the sins demons is fantastic, you can basically determine which is which based on the design.  Definitely go see this, it’s very fun! 

Extra Spoiler alert here: there are two post credits sequences, so stay all the way through.  There are no cameos from any other DC heroes, despite clear space for both Superman and Aquaman.  I suppose that’s fine, but a little disappointing.  There are also no appearances by any potential villains except Mister Mind, even though the Rock is a producer of this and is already cast as Black Adam.  I believe he’s getting his stand alone Black Adam movie before he meets up with Shazam. 

8 out of 10 – I really enjoyed it!  Too long, and a little too heavy here and there, but overall, super fun.

Movie Review: Us (R – 116 minutes)

Us is the second movie from Jordan Peele, and if you saw Get Out, you know how skilled he is at elevating the horror genre to something that feels simply familiar and yes, somehow simultaneously complexly completely new. 

Us begins with a flashback to the Santa Cruz amusement park boardwalk in the late 80s, yes, the same place they shot The Lost Boys.  Young Adelaide is walking with her parents, Russel and Rayne, who seem to be arguing quite a bit. Russel wins Adelaide a T-Shirt, then heads over to the Whack a Mole game while Rayne heads to the restroom.  Adelaide wanders off and enters a hall of mirrors where she encounters a terrifying reflection.

Years later, Adelaide and her family, husband Gabe, son Jason, and daughter Zora, are heading to Santa Cruz for a family vacation.  As they get closer, Adelaide gets more and more uncomfortable – it seems she has blocked most of the traumatic fear she felt as a result of her childhood scare.  While there, one night the Wilsons notice a family at the end of their driveway. Without any spoilers here – the family breaks into the house, and as you’ve seen in the trailers, they are doppelgangers of the Wilsons.  Terror ensues.

I can’t really say much else about the movie without getting into spoilers. As with Get Out, there are a ton of tiny details that you can pick up here and there in the setup of the situations that Peele uses to foreshadow the conclusion and add layers to the discussion of the ‘meaning’ of the movie.  Unlike Get Out, the meaning in Us is far less clear and much more open to interpretation.  That is either very good, or very frustrating, depending on the type of viewer you are.  It is absolutely a study of the duality present in all of us, but does that stretch to a more social and geopolitical meaning or is it drawing parallels to the race and class divides currently present in our country?  Yes, and no.  Honestly, Peele has created a movie that is striking when you first see it, but falls apart the more questions you ask. Is it a thriller, or is it more a science fiction horror flick?  Are the Tethered (the doubles) monsters, victims, or something else entirely?

It is definitely worth seeing, and if you are going to see it – do it in a full theater so that you can react to the jump scares with everyone else!  Yes, there are some scary moments, and it’s bloody, but not too gory, if that makes sense. There are some genuinely scary moments mixed with some genuinely hilarious moments.  The cast is exceptional. The story is interesting, but the work the cast does is what elevates the material, and once you’re no longer watching them present the story, you begin asking the questions that poke holes in the plot – which speaks to their skill.

• Lupita Nyong’o is absolutely amazing as Adelaide. She manages to bring a lovely maternal presence to the primary role and a terrifying abandonment to her doppelganger.  She carries the movie, and once she begins to figure out what is going on, she’s unleashed as a mother determined to protect her family.

• Winston Duke is so good as Gabe and his doppelganger that you can often forget he’s also the guy playing the doppelganger.  Gabe is very much a Jordan-Peele –style dad, there for his family but wanting to match up with his friend and co-worker Josh, who just bought a new car.

• Shahadi Wright Joseph plays Zora, and while the family is disappointed she no longer wants to run track, she’s convinced she’s making the right decision for herself.  She’s almost better as the doppelganger who is incredibly unsettling.
• Evan Alex plays Jason, and his doppelganger is also terribly unsettling due to the skittering around like a non-human, which is always creepy as hell. He also does a great job realizing his connection to his double, and how to manipulate him. 

• Elisabeth Moss plays Kitty and Tim Heidecker plays Josh, the friends that the Wilsons run into at the beach. They are stereotypical ‘haves’ bragging about their new boat, their new car, and her new plastic surgery.  They also live in a huge house and are comically not into one another and Josh spends his time bragging about this and that while Kitty spends her time drinking.  They pay zero attention to their kids.  Both are amazing as their doubles, and Heidecker seems to be having more fun than anyone else in the movie, but he also seems to be in a different movie from time to time.  Cali and Noelle Sheldon play their twin daughters.

• Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays Russel and Anna Diop plays Rayne in the flashbacks to Adelaide’s first trip to the amusement park.

Overall, the movie is expertly performed, and well-crafted, but I personally did not care for it.  I am not a horror movie fan, so the callback and homages to classic horror movies did nothing for me. I really enjoyed Get Out, and was looking forward to this.  Slight spoiler-y side-note, the rabbits you’ve seen in the trailers do get eaten alive, quickly and off-screen, but still, they were screaming and that upset me more than anything else in the movie.  I was very worried about that from the first time I saw rabbits in one of the trailers, so I used the site DoesTheDogDie.com to look up what the status of the rabbits would be in the movie, and I am very grateful to that site and will recommend it to everyone! 

I enjoyed the experience of watching Us in a theater, but I find the more I think about it, the less it holds up.  It’s a movie that just raises questions, but that might be a great thing, because it’s super fun to discuss it with friends!

5 out of 10 – just my personal and very subjective rating, you may love it, or you may hate it - it's certainly interesting and well-crafted.

Movie Review: Captain Marvel (PG13 – 124 minutes)

In Marvel Comics, Carol Danvers first appeared in March of 1968.  She first became the superhero Ms. Marvel when her DNA fused with that of Dr. Walter Lawson who was actually a Kree scientist named Mar-Vell.  Over the years, she fought for equal pay for equal work, was socially progressive, and became a symbol of the feminist movement.  Eventually she shifted off “Ms.” And went to her Air Force rank of Captain.  I am most familiar with her from the animated Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes series, in which she swiftly established her skill and power, becoming a formidable ally and member of S.W.O.R.D.

In this 21^st movie in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), we are introduced to Vers (pronounced ‘Veers’), a Kree warrior who appeared on their planet, Hala, six years ago with no memory of who she was or what she was doing. Plagued by dreams, she spends her time training with her commander, Yon-Rogg, for various Star-Force missions in the ongoing Kree/Skrull war.  The Skrulls are a race of shapeshifters, and the Supreme Intelligence (which, of course, is the Artificial Intelligence in charge of the Kree empire) decides to send Vers off with her squad to rescue their informant before the Skrulls get ahold of him and the information he’s collected.  The mission starts off pretty well, the Star-Force heads in while the Accusers wait above, ready to bomb the planet out of existence.  They stumble into an ambush, the Skrulls grab Vers, and they begin poking around in her brain to find details about possible light-speed travel.  What they find opens up her memories about her life as an Air Force pilot on earth, sending all of them on a crash course for 1995 earth where she meets a younger Nick Fury and does some adventuring with him, Maria Rambeau (yes, she has a daughter named Monica), and Goose the ‘cat’. 

I won’t say anything further than that, because I really loved this movie and it’s worth you checking it out.  Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, it has a great sense of adventure and fun, and is certainly a great stand-alone origin movie to the MCU.  The front half moves a little slow, as it is mostly exposition and research. However, once the action really kicks in, the movie is fast and fun, and Carol really steps into her own as the most powerful character in the MCU. Get ready Thanos.

• Brie Larson has already done an exceptional job stepping up into the role of the next leader of the upcoming few phases of the MCU, taking over from Chris Evans the off-screen duties of visiting fans and battling Nazis on Twitter.  Social Activism is not required from the actors in the MCU, but it does speak to the quality of people they hire for these movies when their values seem to naturally align with their character’s values.  Larson is wonderful as Danvers, all cocky self-assuredness with just the right amount of doubt caused by the memory loss.  She wants to be the best, whether that’s a Star-Force fighter, or an Air Force pilot. Once she realized she’s been held back for most of the movie, the moment she sets herself free and steps into her full potential is absolutely magic and Larson plays it just perfectly.  I wanted Katee Sackoff in this role for years, but Larson has completely won me over.  We didn’t see Agent Brand in this movie, so perhaps Sackoff can step into that role.

• Samuel L. Jackson seems to be having the time of his life playing a younger Nick Fury. He gets to hang out as Captain Marvel’s sidekick, helping her figure out her past. Also, his scenes with the cat are wonderful.

• Ben Mendelsohn continues his run as ‘villain of the moment’ by playing Talos, the head of the Skrull unit we see in this movie. He manages to give Talos just enough layers to stay interesting and engaging, and wow, the makeup is stunning.  After seeing Skrulls for years in comics and animated shows, I never thought they would make it to the screen, because they are ridiculous looking, but he did an amazing job.

• Jude Law plays Yon-Rogg, Vers’s trainer and commander.  He’s fairly insistent that she learn to control her emotions in order to become a great warrior.  He does a good job of being incredibly patronizing for the majority of the movie. 

• Annette Bening plays Dr. Wendy Lawson (see what they did there?), as well as the image that Vers sees when she interacts with the Supreme Intelligence (you see whoever you most admire).  Bening gets to play a lot of fun angles in this, and really seems to be having a great time.

• Lashana Lynch plays Maria Rambeau, and the scene where she gets to remind Carol of who she used to be brought me to tears. Everyone needs friends who always have your back and are strong when you are at your weakest, helping you recover.

• Clark Gregg brings Agent Coulson back to the big screen in a much younger and inexperienced version. It was an absolute joy to see him.

• Gemma Chan played Minn-Erva, another member of the Star Force who doesn’t particularly care for Vers.  Yes, it would have been cool for her to have a bit more to do.

• Additional Star Force teammates are played by Rune Temte (Bron-Char), Algenis Perez Soto (Att-Lass) and Chuku Modu (Soh-Larr).

• Djimon Hounsou returns as Korath the Pursuer, and we get to see him here with the Star Force, prior to starting work for Ronan and his fanatical Kree off-shoot adventures when we run into them in Guardians of the Galaxy, which is set a number of years later.

• Speaking of which, Lee Pace returns as Ronan the Accuser, here working with the rest of the Accusers, doing questionable things. I am hoping the Captain Marvel sequel allows us to see what happened to him between this movie and Guardians.

Overall, I absolutely loved it. It’s so much fun and has some great action.  There are some powerful women in it, and it certainly has some feminist themes, but in what I would consider a supportive and subtle way.  She’s flawed, she’s human, and that’s her greatest strength.

9 out of 10 – fantastic, but the more I see it (I'm on three times already), the higher I want to give it.  The digital de-aging looks pretty good, but some of the CGI here and there was iffy.  The practical stuff was amazing, the hand to hand combat was great. Also, points for the 90s music soundtrack, and for making me feel nostalgic about Blockbuster.  I used to spend a lot of time there – pretty sure I still have my card.

Yes, there’s a mid-credits scene tying it to Avengers: Endgame – which you knew would happen because the mid-credits scene of Infinity war was Fury beeping Marvel.  We have just over a month to wait to find out what happens once she gets that page and heads back to earth.